An intriguing weekend road-trip against a pair of East Division rivals kicked off for the Brantford Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon with a trip to TD Place in Ottawa for their final meeting of the season with the 67’s, with the two sides battling for top spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Bulldogs were without the services of defenseman Ben Danford & forward Parker Holmes with upper body injuries in addition to Luca Testa & Dylan Tsherna with lower body injuries, while Ryder Boulton served the 4th of a 6-game suspension. Ryerson Leenders was sharp early denying a point-blank drive from Filip Ekberg to keep the game scoreless. The Bulldogs began to tilt their ice in their direction, leading to a power-play opportunity after Adam Benak was taken down by Frankie Marrelli, and it was Benak who converted the opportunity himself. Caleb Malhotra won a faceoff on the attacking left side forward to the bottom of the circle where Benak stepped in and shelved his 23rd of the season to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead at 8:09. Brantford nearly doubled the lead moments later when Gabriel Frasca found a rebound right in front of the Ottawa goal, jumped off a defender and knocked a backhand that looked for the five-hole of Ryder Fetterolf but the 67’s netmider was able to squeeze the puck between his pads and keep the game 1-0. The save proved big as the 67’s went to the power-play in the later stages of the frame and converted with a Kohyn Eshkawkogan drive that was deflected in front of the goal by Thomas Vandenberg for his 18th of the season, tying the game 1-1 at 16:34. 90-seconds later the 67’s took the lead with Filip Ekberg’s initial shot being denied while Cooper Foster followed on the rebound for his 22nd of the season to give the 67’s a 2-1 lead they took to the locker room through 20-minutes.
The middle period tilted entirely for the 67’s, scoring just 1:06 into the frame as Spencer Bowes set Nic Sima off the right circle to drive in his 12th of the season past Ryerson Leenders to give the 67’s a 3-1 lead. After a Charlie Paquette tip rang off the goal post to Fetterolf’s left, the game went to 4-on-4 with Paquette and Sam McCue taking matching penalties. After a Bulldogs 3-on-2 rush went for naught, the 67’s countered with a 3-on-1 the other direction, ending with Kohyn Eshkawkogan setting Spencer Bowes in the slot to record his 13th of the season, giving Ottawa a 4-1 lead at 8:16. The Bulldogs turned the play from there and rattled another goal post while a late rush from Jeremy Freeman & Cooper Dennis was handled aside by Fetterolf to send the 67’s to the 2nd intermission up by a trio. The Bulldogs looked to put a push on in the final frame and besieged the goal of Ryder Fetterolf early in the frame. Charlie Paquette looked to pull the visitors one closer but was denied off a right-wing rush driving the front of the net. Paquette’s first attempt was denied by Fetterolf on the forehand at the front of the net and then the 67’s goaltender managed to deny the second attempt on the backhand as well. A 5-on-3 for the Bulldogs went for naught as well with Fetterolf making a pair of key stops and the Bulldogs being unable to get their man-advantage set from there. Ottawa didn’t see their first shot of the third period until the 11:52 mark but it was a Nic Sima breakaway that the overager cashed in on for his 2nd of the game to secure the 5-1 victory for the 67’s.
Story submitted by Reed Duthie
